Venezuela’s Maduro Decrees All Workers Subject To Forced Labor – Up To 60 Days A Year

Contributing Editor Glenn Garvin (Reason archive here) reports on the latest dispiriting developments coming out of Venezuela, a supposed socialist paradise that long drew postive notices from American lefties such as actor Sean Penn, columnist David Sirota, and others.

Boosters dismissed claims that the Chavez regime was despotic but most have gone silent now the country is plagued by a complete economic collapse. In 2013, Nicolas Maduro succeeded Chavez as president. Sadly, things can always get worse and, as Garvin writes, they are:

In an executive order that bypassed the muss and fuss of congressional approval, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro decreed that both public- and private-sector employees (that is, anybody at all) can be forced to work in farm fields for up to 60 days at a time — or longer, “if circumstances merit.”